Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is the generic term for systems designed to improve a motor vehicle's handling, particularly at the limits where the driver might lose control of the motor vehicle. See, for example, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) document on “Automotive Stability Enhancement Systems”, publication J2564 (12/2000, 6/2004). ESC compares the driver's intended direction in steering and braking inputs to the motor vehicle's response, via lateral acceleration, rotation (yaw) and individual wheel speeds, and then brakes individual front or rear wheels and/or reduces excess engine power as needed to help correct understeer (plowing) or oversteer (fishtailing). ESC also integrates all-speed traction control which senses drive-wheel slip under acceleration and individually brakes the slipping wheel or wheels, and/or reduces excess engine power until control is regained. ESC cannot override a car's physical limits. If a driver pushes the possibilities of the car's chassis and ESC too far, ESC cannot prevent a crash. It is a tool to help the driver maintain control. ESC combines anti-lock brakes, traction control and yaw control (yaw is spin around the vertical axis). Methods of ESC operation are also discussed in report G248 dated Jun. 2, 2005 “Electronic Stability Control: Review of Research and Regulations” by M. Paine, Vehicle Design and Research Pty Limited, 10 Lanai Place, Beacon Hill, NSW, Australia 2100.
ESC systems use several sensors in order to determine the state the driver wants the motor vehicle to be in (driver demand). Other sensors indicate the actual state of the motor vehicle (motor vehicle response). The ESC control algorithm compares both states and decides, when necessary, to adjust the dynamic state of the motor vehicle. The sensors used for ESC have to send data at all times in order to detect possible defects as soon as possible. They have to be resistant to possible forms of interference (rain, potholes in the road, etc.). The most important sensors are: 1) steering wheel sensor, used to determine the angle the driver wants to take, often based on anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) elements; 2) lateral acceleration sensor, used to measure the lateral acceleration of the motor vehicle; 3) yaw sensor, used to measure the yaw angle (rotation) of the motor vehicle, can be compared by the ESC with the data from the steering wheel sensor in order to take a regulating action; and 4) wheel speed sensors used to measure the wheel speeds.
ESC uses, for example, a hydraulic modulator to assure that each wheel receives the correct brake force. A similar modulator is used with anti-lock brake systems (ABS). ABS needs to reduce pressure during braking, only. ESC additionally needs to increase brake pressure in certain situations.
The heart of the ESC system is the electronic control unit (ECU) or electronic control module (ECM), i.e., motor vehicle controller or microprocessor. Diverse control techniques are embedded in the ECU and often, the same ECU is used for diverse systems at the same time (ABS, traction control, climate control, etc.). The desired motor vehicle state is determined based on the steering wheel angle, its gradient and the wheel speed. Simultaneously, the yaw sensor measures the actual state. The controller computes the needed brake or acceleration force for each wheel and directs the actuation of, for example, the valves of an hydraulic brake modulator.
The marketing names of ESC systems vary. For example, BMW refers to its ESC system as Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), Mercedes and Bosch call it Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Toyota calls it Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), and Ford (US) calls it AdvanceTrac. See, for example, SAE document J2564, which also lists known terms and acronyms for ESC. StabiliTrak is General Motors' trademark name for their ESC system. StabiliTrak, introduced in 1997 Cadillac models, is now available on many of the company's cars and trucks. StabiliTrak helps reduce or prevent motor vehicle spins and excessive understeer. Individual wheel brake and/or engine interventions assist the driver in reducing the difference between the driver's requested direction and the actual motor vehicle direction. StabiliTrak also integrates ABS and traction control systems (TCS). The StabiliTrak control algorithm determines when and how to activate the ESC system based on data from an additional sensor set. The brake modulator then applies corrective yaw movements through individual wheel brake control to bring the motor vehicle back toward the driver's requested direction.
Motor vehicles utilizing electronic stability control systems require some means of determination of the driver's intended motor vehicle behavior (i.e., intended motor vehicle path or track). In General Motors' (GM's) StabiliTrak system these means are accomplished by the driver command interpreter. GM's StabiliTrak system obtains a motor vehicle yaw gain using a yaw gain table with present motor vehicle speed and intended road-wheel angle (driver's hand-wheel angle divided by the steering gear ratio) as yaw gain table lookup arguments. The steady state desired vehicle yaw rate for the ESC system is the product of this motor vehicle yaw gain obtained from the yaw gain table and the driver's intended road-wheel angle. With GM's StabiliTrak system, dynamics are then imparted through the use of a second order filter, with some means of determining the natural frequency and damping, either through table look-up as a function of motor vehicle reference velocity, or using an equation based approach, as a function of motor vehicle parameters and motor vehicle reference velocity. Populating the motor vehicle yaw gain table is done by a large number of step-steer maneuvers, well know in the art, on dry pavement, at a range of motor vehicle speeds and steering angles. GM's StabiliTrak system is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,919, issued Aug. 24, 1999 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, which patent is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Presently, calibration of the motor vehicle yaw gain table, for example Table 2 in U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,919, is traditionally done by performing a very large number of step-steer maneuvers, well known in the art, over a range of motor vehicle speeds and road-wheel angles, by which the motor vehicle yaw gain is computed as a ratio of steady-state motor vehicle yaw rate to road-wheel angle. This requires a large number of motor vehicle tests to populate the motor vehicle yaw gain table. In the course of conducting these tests, motor vehicle variation can cause significant error. This variation can be due to tire heating, tire wear, etc. Furthermore, the process is manual in nature, and, as such, is prone to human error. Moreover, motor vehicle yaw gain table entries are not independent of the driver command interpreter filter parameters and care must be taken to insure consistency. Also, if motor vehicle yaw gain table entries beyond the lateral acceleration capability of the motor vehicle are required, they must be manually calculated and entered.
As ESC systems have evolved over time, more precise computation of motor vehicle yaw rates have been necessitated, requiring an ever larger number of motor vehicle tests to populate the required motor vehicle yaw gain tables. For example, utilizing the prior art, at least 1089 motor vehicle tests are needed to populate the yaw gain table to the maximum lateral acceleration capability of the motor vehicle for today's StabiliTrak system of GM. If motor vehicle yaw gain table entries beyond the lateral acceleration capability of the motor vehicle are required, they must still be manually calculated and entered.
Presently, the deficiencies in the prior art yaw gain table population method are: 1) a large number of motor vehicle tests are required to populate the motor vehicle yaw gain table; 2) in the course of conducting these tests, motor vehicle variation can cause significant error, such as for example due to tire heating, tire wear, etc.; 3) the testing process is manual in nature, and as such is prone to human error; 4) the motor vehicle yaw gain table entries of the tests are not independent of the driver command interpreter filter parameters, so care must be taken to insure consistency; and 5) manual calculations of yaw gain table entries that are beyond the lateral capability of the motor vehicle are required.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an automated, more precise, less costly and time-consuming method of populating the motor vehicle yaw gain table for use by ESC systems.